THE ANSCHLUSS

How necessary was the rearmament of this country, was
shown a week later when a Germany armed to the teeth was able
to secure, in face of those Powers which had wished to preserve
the independence of Austria, and without the firing of a single
sho^ that Anschluss or union with Austria which she and her
fellow Germans in that country had been denied, even in the form
of an economic treaty, when it had been demanded seven years
before without power to enforce it. The evil of this act of force,
even if desired by the overwhelming majority of the Austrian
people who had had little other economic hope since the dis-
memberment of the Austrian Empire in 1918 save in union with
Germany, was not so much that it deprived Austria—" apolitical
and economic entity," as Mr. Boothby put it, " which it was
impossible to sustain "—of its independence and strengthened
the power of Germany, as that it strengthened the claims of
might, as opposed to those of right, to decide international issues.
It threatened by a violent shock to the complicated fabric of
European relationships to involve the whole world, including this
country, in the untold evil of another Great War. At 3.37 on the
afternoon of Monday, 14th March, the Prime Minister made an
official statement in the House of Commons on the events that
had just occurred.

119